


trapped in a burning house in a silent picture

by heateqq



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Happy Ending, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, I intend for this to be painful, Injury Recovery, I’m not sorry, Major Character Injury, Recovery, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28880001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heateqq/pseuds/heateqq
Summary: When an experiment at L-Corp labs goes awry and leaves Lena seriously injured (both physically and mentally), she will need Kara by her side whether she likes it or not. The fact that they haven’t talked for 6 months doesn’t help either, but maybe she is exactly what Lena needs. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll be able to work through their issues.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 14
Kudos: 113





	trapped in a burning house in a silent picture

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place six months after 5x01 events and is canon compliant but only up to that episode. I can’t tell you exactly how long this fanfic will be but I plan on 8-10 chapters max. I also can’t promise regular updates (oops). 
> 
> Once again huge thanks to my friend kieran (@fireandfolds) for being my beta!

Decisions always have consequences and people do everything in their power to make good ones. They analyse their options, think of each one of them and everything that could possibly go wrong, take the necessary precautions to guarantee a favourable outcome. 

But the thing about decisions? They are sneaky _motherfuckers_. You can think them through, have good intentions and make a choice truly the best for you and everyone else… and it might still blow up in your face.

————————————

As Lena struggles to open her eyes, the first thing she registers is the ringing in her ears. The splitting headache comes next. The CEO tries to take a deep breath, which proves to be rather difficult for two pretty concerning reasons: a deep ache in her chest (most likely caused by a huge piece of debris pressing on her chest and— _oh she has definitely broken a rib_ ) and smoke.

And for a moment she thinks: _“Is this how I’m gonna die?”_ , because despite the fact that her mind is currently foggy and she can’t fully recall what happened, she’s never expected to live long. What with the assassination attempts and all, she figures an accident of her own doing would in fact be a preferable way to part with this world.

She takes shallow breaths, trying to control them as best as possible in her current predicament. Her mind immediately runs a diagnostic. Her ribs are most likely broken, she definitely can’t move, but she can feel a burning sensation on her cleavage which… makes sense at least. Her welding helmet is still on, which is good. It’s good, right? _Everything will be fine._

Lena manages to open her eyes fully only to be met with darkness. This isn’t fine. This is certainly _not_ fine. Her heart rate picks up enough for her to feel as if she's hearing it, and that’s when she realises… it’s nearly entirely silent. Aside from the quiet sound of crackling fire, she can’t hear anything. _Jess… Jess was with her._

The brunette struggles to look around but eventually manages to spot the assistant. She’s lying out of her reach but near enough for Lena to notice that there is definitely something sticking out of her stomach and… _is that blood? It’s most definitely blood._

“Jess? Jess!” She starts to call for the other woman, coughing along the way and reaching for her. Her hand retracts as soon as she touches the warm liquid (undoubtedly blood). Lena grits her teeth painfully to avoid screaming out in pain, but her hand feels as if it was on fire. Jess remains unresponsive; maybe she can’t hear her?

Lena brings up her hands to the bottom of her welding helmet trying to unbuckle it, but she can’t even feel anything aside from the ripping pain. She’s vaguely aware of tears running down her face and her rapid breaths that become harder to take by the second. She can barely see anything by now, let alone control the shaking of her hands, and she seriously regrets tinkering with her helmet and adding better buckles because _these are a bitch to work with._

Her breathing is dangerously sharp and shallow and she _can’t breathe_. Lena closes her eyes and tries to calm her nerves, think about this logically. She has to help Jess—for all she knows they’re on their own, Lena is her only chance. 

After a subjective twenty minutes, but what is actually an objective five, Lena feels her chest relax and slowly go back to the steady rhythm of rise-and-fall. She lets out a long exhale and inhales deeply, then tries the buckle again. The tears continue to run down her face, much to her dismay, but it’s rather difficult to stop them when her hands feel as if someone was skinning her alive (or at least what she imagines it would feel like). 

Eventually though, she hears a characteristic click. And _god_ she would cry of relief if it wasn’t for the fact she _has_ already been crying. The helmet drops next to her with a clank; pretty loud in contrast to the dreadful silence surrounding them. 

“Jess—Jess wake up, please. Jess can you hear me?” Her voice is hoarse and her eyes sting from exposure to smoke, but Lena has never felt happier than in this exact moment when she sees her assistant’s eyes open. 

Thankfully Jess seems to be in too much shock to panic, and although her eyes are technically locked on Lena, it looks like she isn’t seeing her—just staring passively in one direction. Her lips part a few times while Lena keeps saying her name and tries to get closer. She has to get closer to help her but no matter how hard she tries, she can’t move. The debris on top of her is too heavy, the ache in her chest has become significantly sharper and she’s still gritting her teeth painfully so as not to scream because of her hands.

“Ms. Luthor—”

“I’m here, Jess. I’m trying just—stay awake, okay? Everything will be fine, I just need to—”

“I don’t think I will be get—getting out of here.” 

“You will be fine, Jess. We will be okay just… stay awake for me?”

“Alright…” 

The following ten minutes pass in relative silence apart from Lena’s constant murmuring and Jess’ quiet grumblings of acknowledgment. As long as she can keep her awake, they could make it. But of course, that is just a hopeful lie Lena is feeding herself, and deep down they both know it.

“It’s okay, Ms. Luthor.” It’s a whisper Lena can barely hear, but she does and it brings more tears to her eyes. Then to her horror, Jess’ eyes flutter close. 

“Jess? Jess don’t—open your eyes. Jess, you have to stay with me. Please, Jess, I can’t—” her voice breaks as sobs overtake her. Her assistant is unresponsive, eyes closed, lying in a pool of blood; and although Lena can’t see from this distance, she _knows_ that if she were closer, she would have seen the moment her chest stopped rising. 

“Jess please—someone will… someone… someone will help us soon, please don’t leave me—” 

And _lord, how she hates herself for these words_. The reality of what just happened hits her suddenly in full force. Jess, sweet, kind Jess who never had to care for Lena but did it anyway, who brought her lunch whenever the CEO herself forgot to eat on long days at the office. Jess, who, when Kara stopped coming by due to their falling-out, removed all the liquor from Lena’s office stash, who would always greet her with a genuine smile, and who for a very long time was the only person whose sincerity Lena believed when she asked her a simple _‘Are you okay, Ms. Luthor?’ ___

————————————

At some point Lena must’ve passed out again, and when she comes to, her whole body aches. Something is digging into her cheek which is pressed to the floor, her eyes lock onto her outstretched hand just so she doesn’t have to look at Jess’ body. And _oh,_ only now does she see just how bad her hand is.

Her breaths are slow and shallow but steady nonetheless. Too tired to cry, all she can do is _think_. And she hates that the person who haunts her mind, even right now, is Kara. 

Kara, who lied. Kara, who betrayed her. Kara, who made her think she found her people, just to take it away from her. Kara, who tore down Lena’s walls and then hurt her worse than anyone else in her entire life (and those are some big shoes to fill). 

But it was also Kara who was on her side, Kara who believed her, Kara who brought her flowers and lunches and _donuts_ , Kara who covered them both with the same blanket on movie nights, Kara who reached for her hand to ease Lena’s nerves on her first game night, and Kara who always moved her hand up and down the brunette’s back when they hugged. 

She couldn’t have made that up, could she? _Well…_ she could. If Lena has learned anything from her life, it’s that people she loves don’t stay around for long. But for now, _just for this moment_ , she wants to believe that all of it was genuine, even if it was too good to be true. Because she realises she doesn’t know if she’ll ever get to see Kara Danvers again.

————————————

The next time she opens her eyes she panics briefly, the silence she’s become familiar with is no more. There is shouting somewhere but she can’t make out any words. She manages to slowly move her head in the direction of the commotion just in time to see some light start breaking through the debris, but her body feels just so _heavy._

She knows she should be relieved: this is help, her rescue. But she’s too exhausted to feel anything other than pain, and despite how much she tries to break through the fog that is her mind right now and be alert (or, well, just awake really would already be an accomplishment), her eyelids are too heavy and soon enough the dark overtakes her once again.

————————————

When she wakes again, it takes some time for her eyes to adjust to the light, which she suddenly finds blinding ( _perks of being trapped under the ruins of your lab for a significant amount of time, yeah?_ ). Her current situation is rather… confusing.

It’s _very_ windy and cold aside from the warmth radiating from… _oh_. The House of El crest that she is met with right in front of her face is rather telling. Kara is carrying her, clearly flying, and although Lena vaguely remembers that she’s supposed to be mad at her, she can’t find it in herself when those strong arms hold her so softly yet so protectively. 

Under normal circumstances she’d also remember to panic because _they are literally flying_ , except that right now she’s just way too exhausted for it. In fact, she can feel the sleep slowly pull her in again and for the first time this day, she decides to give into it willingly. 

As her eyes close once more, with the last remnants of her strength, she lets out a soft whisper unsure whether she is hoping for Kara to hear it or not. 

“I love you.” 

Next there is just the dark.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Any feedback is highly appreciated<3


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